Even his much more famous playwright, TV and film director brother is probably not as famous online

Today, this quietly spoken academic, most recognisable by the impressive fountain of silver frizz above his large spectacles, has become an online phenomenon, with 8 million views of his Periodic Table videos.

One of his more explosively popular videos

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YouTube isn’t just for music videos or movie clips anymore. Now, you see people posting home videos, selling products, giving tutorials on how to use products or how to do certain tasks, promoting their web sites, etc. Now, you can even learn about science. Science on YouTube? Yes, and you probably won’t believe how popular Professor Martyn Poliakoff has become:

“Today, this quietly spoken academic, most recognisable by the impressive fountain of silver frizz above his large spectacles, has become an online phenomenon, with 8 million views of his Periodic Table videos.”

“The periodic table, bane of GCSE chemistry students’ lives, has been brought to vivid life in a series of fascinating – and sometimes explosive – internet films.”

“They hope the YouTube films will spark new interest in the fundamental building blocks of the universe among children who might otherwise be turned off by rote learning of the periodic table.”

“The scientist fronting most of the films, Professor Martyn Poliakoff – brother of award-winning TV director and writer Stephen – aims eventually to demonstrate every non-radioactive element.He said: ‘I thought it was a really great way of communicating our enthusiasm and enjoyment of the subject to a wider audience.'”

If these videos are educating a lot of people online, yes, including adults who have supposedly finished Chemistry, will there be a move to have schools use Professor Poliakoff’s videos as part of their curriculum?